Posted by LaLa on 01 Jun 2007
Klickads, which does business as BrokersNYC, filed an antitrust suit against the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), a trade association that represents the largest players in the New York City real estate market. By restricting members’ residential listings for distribution only through its own computer system and boycotting other integrators, REBNY seeks to monopolize information and, therefore, keep broker commission standardized.
Brokers need access to REBNY’s listings in order to compete in the Manhattan real estate market, but they should be able to choose which system they use to access that information. As in any other market, choice empowers consumers; competitive listing services such as BrokersNYC would help New Yorkers comparison-shop for apartments or brokers and save tens of thousands of dollars.
REBNY’s attempt to control the way brokers and their customers access listings is similar to the National Association of Realtors’ “opt-out” policy that prompted a recent civil antitrust filing by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Case History:
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What follows will be a series of lessons we learned from LaLa on our quest for a condo. As lessons are added, the narrative will appear to build in reverse order. I hope readers who find this later will scroll down to beginning.
Lesson 1: I didn’t know I needed an agent.
I figured all the information I needed was on the Internet and I would just click away. Silly me. My search began innocently enough. My daughter has been throwing money out the window at nearly $1600 a month for a nice enough studio on the UES. Her lease was up in a few months, and the stars seemed to be aligning in the real estate market. To address the economic correction, prices were falling from their nonsensical highs, mortgage rates were attractively low, and there was an unusual accumulation of inventory. A recently converted condo was only a block away from my daughter’s current location. We could move her in on a dolly.
So began our quest. Three units in that building were available from the sponsor. With Google Earth I was nearly able to peer through the windows, then realized why these were still unsold. A unit on the second floor had a façade that shrunk the windows. A higher unit was over the entrance to the parking garage, and the soot stained façade bode poorly for fresh air. Nonetheless, I made an appointment with the sponsor to take a look.
There was one resale in the building, but I couldn’t get any useful details from the Internet. Stymied, I left my contact information on a site that offered access to a listing for this unit. Within an hour, LaLa Wang was calling me.
It was so soon after I had made an appointment with the sponsor, I thought it was someone else from that office. Nope; it was LaLa, eager to part the Nile on my trek to the Promised Land.
We discussed the motivation for my search, and my parameters. These were based on my initial point of reference, the price and location of the condo up the street. My daughter wants to stay on the UES. The prospect of moving more that a few blocks evoked: “But the people in the bagel store know me!” I reassured her there was a bagel store every 4 blocks, like every other essential business that repeats throughout the city.
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It’s clear that the interests of consumers and the interests of large brokerages are not aligned. Let’s hope that the consumer’s interests are respected here and we get a decision that is pro-competition and pro-market efficiency.